performance of shooting. Other texts indicate that a similar state could be
achieved through mastery of any physical skill, so the idea was not
restricted to archery. But archery was deeply tied to the elites, to violence,
and to a certain spiritual power that went beyond ritual correctness. Unlike
the master butcher in Zhuangzi the archer possessed the power of life and
death over other men. Practicing a lethal skill was understood to develop
the archer, in addition to its martial uses.
The martial arts, like so many other areas of Chinese culture, were
transformed during the Warring States period. But the open and dynamic
environment of interstate struggles came to a close in221 bce. The rise of
the Qin kingdom and its eventual conquest of all of the other Chinese states
changed the trajectory of Chinese history. Later Chinese historians would
come to read that change as the inevitable result of developments in the
Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. As we shall see in thenext
chapter, there was no clear sign of inevitability at the time. Martial arts
were central to the intense wars of conquest waged by the Qin, and part of
Qin success was due to its highlighting of certain martial qualities. The
impact of those practices continued into the succeeding Han dynasty,
where the martial arts and their place in society and culture shifted again
and again.
52 The Warring States Period